Date of Award

5-2023

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Psychology

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Reardon, Kathleen

Second Advisor

Goncy, Elizabeth

Third Advisor

Baker, Blair

Abstract

Researchers have demonstrated that unacquainted observers can reliably rate children’s personality traits based on initial impressions, called the thin slice (TS) method (Tackett et al., 2016). Temperament describes characteristics a child is born with and consists of a child's ability to cope with emotion, activity level, ability to focus, and mood; temperament has been shown to map onto personality traits in reliable ways (Rothbart & Bates 1998). Although TS personality has been correlated with temperament traits in a clinical sample of youth (Brandes et al., 2020), it is unclear whether the TS approach can be applied to temperament traits in adolescents. Because temperament can be reliably detected early in life (Rothbart & Goldsmith, 1985), the application of TS methods to temperament may serve as a cost-efficient and reliable tool for the early detection of youth at risk for problem behaviors. In addition to serving as a first investigation of TS methods of temperament traits in a community sample of youth, this study aimed to examine the convergent validity of TS temperament with parent-reported personality traits and child psychopathology. Convergence of child psychopathology with TS temperament was tested by examining the relationship between Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity (ADHD) attention problems and temperament traits. In this study, research participants served as judges. The judges were asked to watch short archival video clips of youth ages 11-17 (targets) performing tasks, and then fill out a questionnaire about the characteristics (personality and temperament) of that youth (four judges per target). Temperament traits largely converged with TS personality traits in expected ways, but associations with parent-report personality and attention problems were not detected. This may be due to TS measures demonstrating limited reliability in the present study. Future work should investigate whether TS temperament reliability can be improved.

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